Caja Obscura

Javier Corvalán + Laboratorio de Arquitectura

ARCHITECTS
Javier Corvalán + Laboratorio de Arquitectura

LOCATION
Asuncion, Paraguay

CATEGORY
Houses

PROJECT YEAR
2012

PHOTOGRAPHS
Pedro Kok

AREA
85 m²

YEAR
2012

PHOTOGRAPHS
Pedro Kok

STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING
Arq. Javier Corvalán

CONSTRUCTION SUPERVISION
Arq. Javier Corvalán

PLANT ENGINEERING & LANDSCAPE DESIGN
Ing. Carlos Amarilla

CLIENT
Paz Encina, Ignacio Telesca

DESIGN TEAM
Arq. Nicolas Berger, Arq. Carlos Agüero, Lic. Magdalena Oddone

COST
20,000 Euros

The project of Casa Obscura is a project of material and immaterial technology at the same time, in some way it is an antithesis of many known definitions of architecture, as the idea is made by absence of light.

The house is made in two parts, on one side there is an habitable basement made in stone and earth, and on the other side there is a metallic box which is leaning above the basement.

The basement is made by rough stone walls which is coming from a quarry 10 km far away from the site, this system builds also the stairs and it is the base of a big lightweight slab made by concrete beams and ceramic.

The box is a cage made by iron tubes of 80 mm structured in cross modules, this cage has an external coating and another internal, the external one is made by galvanised corrugated sheet and the internal one is composed by pressed veneers in MDF.

The pivot fittings of the box are custom made pieces. Everything else is the product of absence of light and material, the obscurity.